National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration January 31, 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a Stock Assessment Review (STAR) Panel meeting to review the 2020 Pacific sardine stock assessment.

In accordance with the regulations implementing the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) as amended, notification is hereby given that NMFS has issued an incidental harassment authorization (IHA) to the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs on behalf of the University of Houston to incidentally harass, by Level B harassment only, marine mammals during a low-energy marine geophysical survey in the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica.

NMFS has received a request from the U.S. Navy (Navy) to take marine mammals incidental to training and testing activities conducted in the Mariana Islands Training and Testing (MITT) Study Area. Pursuant to the MMPA, NMFS is requesting comments on its proposal to issue regulations and subsequent Letter of Authorization (LOA) to the Navy to incidentally take marine mammals during the specified activities. NMFS will consider public comments prior to issuing any final rule and making final decisions on the issuance of the requested LOA. Agency responses to public comments will be summarized in the notice of the final decision. The Navy's activities qualify as military readiness activities pursuant to the MMPA, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 (2004 NDAA).